Post by East Anglian Lefty on Apr 21, 2013 0:33:24 GMT
Happening on the 27th April.
Iceland is currently governed by a coalition of the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin, moderately centre-left) and the Left Greens (Vinstri grænur, something of a New Left outfit but to my mind extremely effective), who came first and third in the 2009 elections. This marked the first time ever Iceland had had a government made up solely of parties of the left, and the first time since its foundation that the Independence Party (Sjálfstaæðiflokkurinn) hadn't topped the poll.
Iceland being basically conservative and fond of extremely poor decisions, the right looks extremely likely to get back in. Because of continued distrust of the criminal conspiracy that is the Independence Party (basically the Icelandic equivalent of Fianna Fail, but without the pretence at redeeming features), however, it looks like the largest Party will instead be the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn, also sometimes known as the Farmers' Party). The Progressives are a centre-right party, and have generally but not exclusively formed governments with the Indepedence Party.
The Progressives have got support partly because of disappointment with the current government (less for what they've done, which except for negotiating with the EU has generally been popular, than for not doing enough - in particular they seem to have taken the blame for a new constitution not being passed, even though that was down to the Independence Party pulling various parliamentary manouevres to derail it.) In addition, their plan to allow foreign money invested in Iceland to leave only conditional on writing down mortgages by 20% has captured a lot of support (as most Icelandic mortgages are underwater and the clever wheeze of taking them out in Euros suddenly looked less smart when the kreppur caused the bottom to fall out of the króna.)
I could go on, but instead I'll share this, which is mostly accurate, fairly amusing and shows the Icelandic flair for polemic, rambling and mild hysteria quite nicely:
www.dv.is/blogg/hallgrimur-helgason/2013/4/19/grein-i-weekendavisen/
(Warning: contains little bits of Danish.)
Iceland is currently governed by a coalition of the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin, moderately centre-left) and the Left Greens (Vinstri grænur, something of a New Left outfit but to my mind extremely effective), who came first and third in the 2009 elections. This marked the first time ever Iceland had had a government made up solely of parties of the left, and the first time since its foundation that the Independence Party (Sjálfstaæðiflokkurinn) hadn't topped the poll.
Iceland being basically conservative and fond of extremely poor decisions, the right looks extremely likely to get back in. Because of continued distrust of the criminal conspiracy that is the Independence Party (basically the Icelandic equivalent of Fianna Fail, but without the pretence at redeeming features), however, it looks like the largest Party will instead be the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn, also sometimes known as the Farmers' Party). The Progressives are a centre-right party, and have generally but not exclusively formed governments with the Indepedence Party.
The Progressives have got support partly because of disappointment with the current government (less for what they've done, which except for negotiating with the EU has generally been popular, than for not doing enough - in particular they seem to have taken the blame for a new constitution not being passed, even though that was down to the Independence Party pulling various parliamentary manouevres to derail it.) In addition, their plan to allow foreign money invested in Iceland to leave only conditional on writing down mortgages by 20% has captured a lot of support (as most Icelandic mortgages are underwater and the clever wheeze of taking them out in Euros suddenly looked less smart when the kreppur caused the bottom to fall out of the króna.)
I could go on, but instead I'll share this, which is mostly accurate, fairly amusing and shows the Icelandic flair for polemic, rambling and mild hysteria quite nicely:
www.dv.is/blogg/hallgrimur-helgason/2013/4/19/grein-i-weekendavisen/
(Warning: contains little bits of Danish.)
